Feeling lousy and unmotivated

Outside rinding is quite time consuming, I love climbing and live in as flat as a pancake area (I even considered moving to different part of the country to have some hills but buying a house to be able to ride a bike seems a little bit extreme :P), and the most important part - structured training is more fun for me (yes, I am a strange person). I really like the structure, the repetability and countability of the training. I went outside, have checked how my fitness translates into the road and then fun has ended. Can I go for 4h ride? Yest I can - no challenge. Can I go for longer ride? Do not have a time for this. No hills - no challenge. This is my and only perspective and I know that is the completely opposite of the idea of cycling, but I have started structured training to be faster on the bike, but the process of training gives me more joy than utilizing there results.

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You are strange! I’d ride out side 100 times on the flat before hitting my trainer. You can go hard on the flats, you don’t need a hill.

In any case, I think you just need to pull it together.

  1. Get the trainer out of the garage at least for the summer. Have a talk with the wife. A hot, humid garage doesn’t work.

  2. Get your diet together - you know what to do.

  3. How about a group ride on the weekend? My club does a Saturday group ride and a Wednesday night race simulation ride. More than anything I look forward to the Saturday group ride every week.

  4. Pick an alternate event to train for in the fall. Lots of fondos and gravel events still seem to be scheduled for the fall as everybody is hoping covid19 will be on the wane.

As I am not OP and my issues are little bit different :slight_smile: this is my first season of riding a bike and trainig so everything is new to me. I live in the flat - so no outside :slight_smile: i simply like the training more than riding a bike:) I will toughen up and try doing threshold workouts in the VO2 max zone. My heart will love me for doing 75 min of >90÷ HR max :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m the OP, and I love to ride outside. I just did my workout today outside and it went well. I also have a 4-year-old that can’t go to school / daycare, so I don’t get a lot of opportunities. My wife also works with COVID data, and I’m basically not allowed to ride with groups. My state is becoming quite the hot spot, anyway, so I’m in no hurry to ride with others. I have a second fan on the way and hopefully that will help with riding in the garage. If not, I’ll probably move indoors.

I’ve been in the same boat. My 9 year old has been home schooled by me for the last months. My training went out the window. I’ve kept riding when I can around my wife’s schedule. Sometimes I end up getting out at 6 or 7pm just so I can pedal for an hour outside.

For the last few months I’ve been doing a small group ride with other people in my club who I know have been quarantined like me. We usually ride gravel where we usually are 5+ feet apart anyway. We stopped sharing food and have been staying socially distanced.

My whole county has only had 600 cases so far, so for us, Covid has been hardly anything. If my town was peaking though I’d be more careful like you are doing.

I also have a 4-year-old that can’t go to school / daycare, so I don’t get a lot of opportunities.

Sounds like great opportunity to me…I did tons of training with a trailer and my kids in them. When they got bigger, a trailer bike. Now bike with them on easy days with my young one and hard days with the teenager. Plus the wife will love you for taking your little one off her hands! In fact one of my fastest years was spent pulling a trailer. I live in the mountains to add to it. Plus you said something about no friends trust me you have a little one there that will love it. Stop by the playground every once in a while and its a win-win.

But if riding has got you blue switch things up. I did a triathlon with my daughter one year. Same year I did an aquabike. You don’t have to do biking unless you are a pro.

There has also been a lack of rest and periodization discussion here. I personally work better with 2 weeks hard, 1 week easy vs the 3 and 1 that many do. Plus what’s your sleep like? All the adaption is from sleep not the workout.

Heavy legs have always been an issue for me too. I use a percussion massager now thanks to tips here.

Also look at nutrition timing. Getting a carb/protein mix right after a workout is really important.

Finally cooling is key. There are lots of threads on cooling here to explore so I’ll leave that to those threads.

Lack of motivation sometimes become hurdle for me to stay consistent in workout. But meditation sometimes help me, but i’m still finding some ways to get motivated every time.

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